If you’re local and you’d love a new pet for the summer holidays then please e-mail me. I’ve got a few baby giant African land snails left to give away to good homes – provided you have a tank, some peat, a stick of cucumber and a cuttlefish! These must-have molluscs are a real hit.

Let me know if you’d like one and you are local to Alton, Hampshire by emailing sarah@madaboutsnailbooks.com.

Bye for now!
Sarah

HOLLYWATER SCHOOL

I’ll be popping in on Monday to show you Bob and Gary, our giant African land snails. Are you ready for us? With thanks to Liz for organising our visit.

WATERSTONE’S, ALTON HIGH STREET

Hi! We’re in Waterstone’s, Alton, tomorrow afternoon between the hours of 2.00 pm and 3.30 pm. As we were given so many lovely baby giant African land snails recently, we’d like to give twenty away to the first twenty children who come through the bookshop door at 2.00 pm.

We’re also signing books if anyone would like copies of Snail Trail, Snails Don’t Burp!, Snail Park or The Secret Scroll, so do come along for your summer reading supplies.

Full care instructions will be given to those lucky enough to take away a beautiful snail in a little cup. You’ll also get a tiny bit of soil with the snail and a small piece of cucumber.

LAVANT C of E PRIMARY SCHOOL

I’m looking forward with great excitement to Book Week in October and my visit to Lavant School. Bob and Gary, the two giant African land snails that accompany me on my visits, should still be awake by then, so get ready for a few surprises!

HERNE JUNIOR SCHOOL

Congratulations to the children who were gold reading award winners at Herne this year. It was lovely to meet you all in the library. I’d like to thank you all for being so careful with, and interested in, Bob and Gary, our two six-year old snails and to thank Mrs. Mary Pitt for making all the arrangements for my visit.

To Bridget – I picked up your story from Reception this morning and will read it soon. Who typed it all up? You? I’m loving the cover already!

Keep reading all of you over the summer and again, many congratulations on being gold award winners!

MANOR  JUNIOR SCHOOL, COVE

How welcome I was made at this lovely school. With many thanks to GAT co-ordinator, Stephanie Torbet for arranging my visit, and to all the lovely children who came and had a look at Bob and Gary.

To the GAT children who attended the workshop, a massive thank you for all your enthusiasm and hard work. It was astonishing how much you achieved in such a short space of time. You came up with some lovely titles for stories and worked very hard on story plans, characters and chapter breakdowns. Awesome work!

ANSTEY JUNIOR SCHOOL

Thank you to everyone for being so welcoming to me this summer. I had a lovely time with the children talking about writing, where the inspiration came for our snail books and giving you some information on the lifecycle of African land snails. To everyone who had snails, hope they are all happy and very healthy; if you have any problems with the snails, just call me.

LAVANT FETE

Hi to all the friends we made at the fete, in particular to Alice and Adele. I had a fabulous day with my little boy, George, who made some lovely new friends and managed to eat his way through the cake stall!

Best wishes to everyone for a great summer break. See you all again in September!

Sarah

A massive THANK YOU to Christine and Malcolm Buchanan for having donated over one hundred six-month old baby giant African land snails. Many of these babies have now gone to very good homes including children from Ropley Brownies, Steep CofE Primary and The Butts School. The babies have beautiful brown shells and are very healthy and energetic.

THANK YOU to Squirrels Class from Selborne CofE Primary School for having been so careful this morning when you held the snails. The snails can be easy to drop and you did beautifully well to hold them so carefully. Well done!

THANK YOU to Steep CofE Primary for the wonderful posters you sent through to me. I am having them framed so that Amy and I can see them every day. We LOVE them!

Bye for now!

Sarah

I can’t believe my last posting is March! So sorry! I’m in the middle of writing the fourth snail book – Snail Movie – but it’s been a hard road to travel down. I have been so busy promoting the books, meeting many wonderful children, parents and teachers, it’s hard to balance the writing time I need with marketing current books.

But Snail Movie is coming along nicely.  It’s a fast-paced book, with many twists and turns. It’s a book about friendship and fame. It’s a book about choices. And there are spots. Lots of spots. Volcanic eruptions of spots. But there are more than a few surprises ……….

ANSTEY JUNIOR SCHOOL, ALTON

Ciara, watch out! I’m in your school in June. Can’t wait to bring Gary and Bob in to meet everyone. They’re in for a few surprises! With thanks to Tracie Brown and Sue White for organising my day.

THE MANOR, FARNBOROUGH

I’m very excited about this up and coming visit. Sorry I lost my voice, Stephanie, and had to re-arrange it. Watch out for the inspiration in a tank arriving in July.

HERNE SCHOOL, PETERSFIELD

Another July visit which I am looking forward to immensely. With thanks to Librarian, Mary Pitt, for organising my day. I can’t wait to meet you all. The book signing should be fun for all and a fitting end to the summer term.

ROPLEY BROWNIES

Hi to Molly and Charlie! Welcome to your new snails! Look after them well and very soon they will be as big as Bob or Gary. If you have any problems with them, however small, just call me. Louise, thank you so much for organising my visit and for your love of African land snails. Keep in touch.

Molly – go to bed!

ALRESFORD BROWNIES

Looking forward to meeting you! Soon I hope!

MOUSE …

To Maisy, enjoy your books! You should get them tomorrow. Hope you have fun with the extra bits I sent. Let me know what you think of the snail books …. Keep on e-mailing. More importantly, keep on reading.

SHEET PRIMARY SCHOOL

To Samuel and Annabelle, many congratulations on winning the snail competition! Samuel – you are destined for great things; Annabelle – your design of a snail on the back of a breakfast cereal packet was inspiring and very beautiful. Well done! Special recommendations for your wonderful designs to Sophie, Maddy and Camilla.

With thanks to Karen Parish for organising my visit, to Mrs. Iles for her support, and to all the teachers who put up with me and my snails.

Whoever organised the snail posters – wonderful work! I am so grateful. They were stunning!  I still want one by the way – I’ll frame it.

MAY ALRESFORD WATERCRESS FESTIVAL

What a lovely day we had! Thanks to all those people who stopped and had a good look at Bob. We met some old friends from St. Matthew’s School, the Alton Convent and Perins. So nice to see so you all and to make some new friends. I lost my voice and had to cancel my visit to The Manor in Farnborough, much to my disappointment, but we have re-arranged that, so can’t wait to run those workshops.

SELBORNE CofE PRIMARY SCHOOL

The May Fair was a beautiful day. Thanks to all who supported us by buying more copies of The Secret Scroll, the Selborne School book written with twenty gifted and talented children, and a UK first in published collaborative writing. We are now working on The Revenge of The Kiln Monster but need funds. Commercial sponsorship is now required. E-mail if you can help, anything will be considered, especially as paper prices have increased astronomically. If you can help us to carry on inspiring children to write and to draw, e-mail us on sarah@madaboutsnailbooks.com.  NOW!

NURSERY VISITS

The snails, Bob and Gary, have been out and about to Cindy’s nursery in Selborne. They are due to go into Selborne Primary on 8th June to entertain Reception class. Watch out for anything slimy if you’re in school from 9.30 a.m. on that day.

WORKSHOPS AT INTECH FOR PRIMARY AGE CHILDREN

We had much fun at Intech running four workshops for primary school age children. A big thanks to all the staff who supported our visit, especially to Tracie without whom our visits would never have happened.

We introduced African land snails to some very young – and much older children, and all the in between ages – and hopefully inspired more children to write and to draw.

ROWLEDGE PRIMARY CofE

I have only just managed to read four story beginnings that were written in my style by some Year 5 children. It was an inspiring idea of their teacher, Sarah, to get them to write this way, and fascinating for me to see the results. And they did it! The language they used was vivid, the sentences short, lively descriptions. I felt I was there with them. I wanted them to write more!

BISHOP TUFNELL C.E. (AIDED) JUNIOR SCHOOL, FELPHAM, BOGNOR REGIS

What a wonderfully friendly school this is. Thanks to Sasha Cremor for organising my visit and to the support of all the staff, especially to Headteacher Mr. Morton. Congratulations to Harry Palmer for his stunning drawing, with special recommendations to James Woosley, Rebecca Wood and Ruby Stothard for their wonderful pictures.

ONE TREE, PETERSFIELD

Hello and thank you so much for supporting our snail books. I love your shop, your café, especially your card selection. A massive thank you for being so nice and kind.

ALTON CONVENT SCHOOL

It’s a long time since I’ve spoken to you all, but a massive hello to Sienna, Charlotte and Rebecca. Your designs sit before me as I write, and provide me with very necessary inspiration.

Snail Movie is about friendship and the pain of separation. It’s also about making new friends. As you may have read, it’s been hard for me to find the right balance between school visits, promotional events and writing. But I’m back on track. I know you’re going to love the book and your cover designs …? They keep me going, if I can be perfectly honest with you. Say a big ‘hi’ to Mrs. Wilson, Director of Studies, for me. Tell her I’ll be in touch.

WATERSTONE’S

You continue to support our books. As a local author I just want to say a massive  thank you to the Alton branch for supporting us. You are all very kind.

NOT GOT A MENTION ….?

If I’ve forgotten you, give me a nudge. Life passes by so quickly, unlike that of a snail!  But a writer’s life is a busy one … and my inspiration, what keeps me going?  It comes from the people I meet.  Every time!

With love to you all.
Bye for now.
Sarah

I hope you have all been celebrating World Book Day today, 4th March. What a terrific week it has been for madaboutsnailbooks with visits to several schools and one final special visit tomorrow, Friday! 

I hope you all had a fun day dressing up, swapping books and bringing in your favourite stories to share with others. We have had lots of fun this week with Bob our largest African Land Snail, spreading the word about how any child, if you work hard enough, can see their pictures, their words in a book one day.   All you have to do is look at what’s around you, question what is going on, try to figure things out – there are so many wonderful stories just waiting out there to be told.

More of this next week, once the dust has settled. 

For those of you who are desperate for a snail, we’ve some on the way.  Patience!  We will be in touch.

Happy reading to all and thanks to all the fabulous children I have met this week for listening carefully and for asking some great questions

Sleep tight.  I too am about to slither off to my bed. 

Bye for now.

Sarah

‘A gripping and enticing first paragraph draws the reader in to this fast paced exciting mystery. A full length novel written as a group collaboration of young authors, this was an ambitious task well executed.

The plot races along, maintaining pace especially with particularly effective use of cliff hanging chapter endings, keeping the reader hooked and wanting to read on.

Chapter headings are also effective.

The storyline is brimming with ideas and well imagined to the point that at times it is slightly confusing and the story a little disjointed. For example, it is not obvious to the storyline why Cassie Crow turned into a rat.

Characterisation is often well drawn especially for Tom, the main character, about whom the reader really cares.

Vocabulary is imaginative and varied, plenty of realistic dialogue adds to the variety and pace of the story. However, some phrasing is somewhat strange, e.g. p86 ‘their mouths heading quickly towards the floor’.

Imaginative similes are often effectively used e.g. She stood like an excited dormouse staring up a shiny red berries in a hedge. Others are a little odd, ‘He saw the tree wind itself up like twirling shoelaces on fast forward’. There are some lovely descriptive passages e.g. p27 description of winter and summer.

Imaginative and appropriate illustrations add another dimension to the story. The whole package has the look of a professional production.’  Anne Matthews, SLS Lead Adviser

What did you think of this review?  Do you agree with Anne? 

Children often ask me where I get my story ideas from and I tell them my ideas all come from things that happen to me in real life.

When we began story writing as a family, it was only because we had moved into a magical village called Newton Valence and a lady gave us a welcoming present of an African land snail in a tank that we began to write about them.

We would never have gone out and bought a snail in a tank, not in a million years.

We all Grew to Love Snails ….

My daughter was only six months old at that time, but as she grew up, she began to make up stories about her snail and to draw pictures of it. I had another baby. When he was a toddler, he too wanted his own snail.  With two children and two snails in the house, there was plenty of snail talk around our kitchen table, and we all grew to love snails and to find them absolutely fascinating, which they are.

Tank on the Doorstep

One day, someone else in our village said ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if all the villagers woke up one day to find a snail in a tank on their doorstep?’. This gave us a great idea for a story and so work on Snail Trail began, or, as it was known then, The Mysterious Case of the Newton Valence Snail Trail.

Of interest to the Grown-ups

In the meantime I had got into fundraising for the local church so was able to add an extra layer to our story that I thught might be of interest to the grown-ups and would somehow explain the mystery behind the snail drop.

When that story was finished we put it all onto the computer and ran off some copies, with Amy’s A4 illustrations inside.  We sold the ‘books’ in the village to raise money for the local church. Then, when everyone asked for the next story, we looked again for inspiration at what lay around us – in the case of book two, our neighbours.  One neighbour had a patio burner, some strange early morning habits and a business selling crystals, and the neighbours on the other side had an extraordinarily huge and tall plant that grew in their front garden and mystically overshadowed everything!

Snail Park is all about the horrendous traffic problems experienced by the neighbouring village of Selborne.  In this book we spun a story around the villagers protesting against the building of a park at the school to house the giant African land snail that had been discovered on Zig-Zag Common, aka Selborne Common, with a Headteacher descending into madness.

All our snail books are based in and around the villages of Newton Valence and Selborne which makes our stories a little more realistic because we use actual places around us.  Amy and I would spend hours up on Selborne Common drawing blackberries and looking at places up there where a giant snail might well hide.

The Snail That got Left Behind

We’ve got loads of new ideas for stories. I’m working on book four at the moment, Snail Movie. Then we’ve got Snalien coming out which is all about alien snails. After that, with so many school children asking me to write about the snail that got left behind in school after an author’s visit, there’s Snail in Paradise. That book will be followed by Snail Alert! or Snail Kidnap! which is all about African land snails, Bob and Gary getting kidnapped in a car park hand-over, and being held to ransom for huge amounts of money. 

I’ve lost count of the strange places I’ve met parents …

We give away lots of our snails to children who are interested in keeping one and I’ve lost count of the strange places I’ve met parents (or do I mean places I’ve met strange parents …?) to hand over something brown and slimy in a bit of peat sitting at the bottom of a margarine tub!  But this has given us a fantastic idea for the kidnap story and I guess I can always bring in other story lines to that book too.  It should be a real thriller!

After that, well, we’ve one or two surprises tucked up our sleeves which we can’t tell you about, can we, or they would no longer be surprises!  Ha-ha!

Happy Half-Term, snail lovers!  And remember, if you are spinning your own tale at home, look at what’s happening around you and take inspiration from the people and the places you know.

PS. A big snaily thank you to Hannah (you know who you are!) for her mention of madaboutsnailbooks on her Facebook page. Much happiness in your new home … you have slithered closer to us which we are over the moon about – within slithering distance indeed!

‘One cloudy day in January the absolutely fantastic author, Sarah Lucas, came to visit Years 2,3,4,5&6 of Binsted Primary School. She came to talk to us about how she became an author and how to write interesting books.

Sarah’s stories were about an African Land Snail called Old McSlithers. This character was based on her family’s pet snail. When Sarah and her family moved house a neighbour gave her a welcoming present and the present was an African Land Snail. She brought some of these snails into school and we got to hold them. African Land Snails eat cuttlefish, cucumber and also lots of fruit and green vegetables. She also brought some snail eggs into school for us to see.

Sarah writes books about snails with help from her family. She told us how she started writing books to help her local church raise money and carried on because people found them so interesting. She taught us how to write a blurb, publish a book and sell it.

We enjoyed having Sarah and her snails with us in school and had lots of fun. We wish that one of her snails had escaped and stayed at our school!

By Robyn F, Olly, Ethan, Robyn M, Katie T, Angela, Ellie, Anthony, Caitlin, Amy, Shaun, Phoebe, Katie D, Francis, Kate, Paige, Ella, Torr, Jake, Oriana, Charlotte, Nadia, Ashlyn, and Eloise.’

A couple of things happened to me over Christmas which make this blog a timely one.

First, I listened to an author of boy fiction books being interviewed on television. I’m sorry I cannot remember his name, but he writes science fiction stories for teenagers. It was an interesting interview.

When asked what tips he would give anyone who wanted to write, the first thing he said was not to write at all – at least not for a good three months. I couldn’t agree with him more.

You want to write - well, don’t!

Like a toddler building a wall of wooden blocks, brainstorming has to be one of the first building blocks, followed by serious thought on the main characters that you undertake.  You need to think about the timescale the story should run over, the place where the action takes place, etc. Without any of these basics having been planned out, your story may falter, possibly stall altogether, go nowhere, or just crash onto the floor.

When you are in school and you are given a title for a story, you are encouraged to use a spider diagram or a story mountain. These are very useful in the planning stage. Here you can write down who the main characters are, describe the action of the story in a very easy and logical way, you can plan how long the story takes to unfold and at what point you want to get to that high point or climax in the story. These things all help to focus your thoughts.

But a plan is just a plan. It’s there to be changed.

When I go into schools I take the plan for Snail Trail to show children. It’s a rough piece of A4 paper. It’s very scruffy. It’s full of scribbles and crossings out. But it also contains, in a very simple format, what happens on which day of my timescale; it helps to keep my story developing and is a useful reminder of what should happen and, very roughly, when.

Plans help you to build up your story

I have three sections on the bottom half of the page of my plan. These are the beginning, the middle and the end. There is very little writing in the final section, the end, less so in the middle section because for me the important and most interesting bit is building up the story, creating the suspense, laying false leads, getting to that fabulous high point and making what’s happening in the story as believable as possible to a child.

For each character, and not just the main ones, I have a character sheet. It lists simple descriptions like eye colour, hair colour, shape of face, mannerisms, favourite words, hobbies. In short, the sheets help my characters to remain the same throughout the story, and thus to be consistent in the mind of the reader.

Draw your characters

There is no reason why you should not draw your characters. If it helps you to write about them in a consistent manner and to pick out certain characteristics for each one, then a sketch somewhere on your planning sheet is better than nothing. You can always flick back to it and it will be there as a quick reminder.

Strong storyline

The second thing that happened to me at Christmas was that I began to write the fourth snail book – Snail Movie – or Flash of Orange – as it may yet be called. When my daughter Amy was 5/6 years old (she’s now 13) we sat down and wrote the first four of the snail book series. So whilst I’m ‘writing’ the fourth book, I’m still working with an old draft. But how different the writing is now turning out to be!

The early stories were very simple and as such they had strong story lines. They were not too involved with too many layers, but then they were all written for the 5/6 year age range and thus kept very basic. Interestingly, as I revisit this old draft, I realise that the strength of these snail books is the simplicity of the themes. As my children have grown up more layers have appeared in the stories. I’ve added other less important story lines which don’t have any direct impact on the main story, they’re just there to help to illustrate the kind of world we are now living in; they’re important for the older reader because they add a bit of social comment, things like our obsession with fame, with how we look, with how we should all look young and beautiful. These are the layers that I feel the older reader might enjoy, and they are written with some leg-pulling, and hopefully, a good dollop of humour.

Layers are good … or are they?

I think these extra layers are important for the older children, but it has reminded me, reading the first draft of Snail Movie, just how important it is to get the story line right and to not let these layers overpower. It is, after all, the story line that knits the reader in. Am I making sense?

I’m sure some people see planning as boring, but I have to say I have recently rediscovered its joys. I confess, however, that I have also started to write. I am still at the planning stage of Snail Movie, but so taken am I by its main story line that I am concentrating on writing certain scenes before I lose them from my head. These are the scenes between the main characters leading up to that high point – or climax. Once they’re on paper it’ll be back to planning. What I’m saying is, if you feel like getting something on paper, then get it down. It can always be work in progress.

 Is writing just planning, followed by more planning?

So why so much planning? Well, the fourth snail book is the fourth book in a series. I have a lot of research to do on pulling the threads that I began to stitch in way back in snail book number one. My writing has to be consistent. I have to refer to events that occurred in the previous books. I need to make sure that I develop specific characters. I guess if you’re writing a series of books, then planning becomes even more important and at book number four, there are even more threads to pull in, more building blocks to add to the tower, more things to pull together and to make believable with a logical conclusion.

My advice to you if you want to write? Brainstorm for as long as you need to. Like the author said on the television, plan the main action of your story line then plan some more. Do your story mountain or your spider diagram. Draw pictures of the world you have created. Live the story in your head. Keep a notebook by your bed at night. When you get inspiration at a traffic light, or in the supermarket, make sure you lodge that flash of inspiration in your head and write it down as soon as, and as safely as, you can. You really do need to capture those moments because they are just those – flashes of real inspiration.

Next blog: whatever gem I uncover next that I think you might enjoy.

BINSTED C OF E PRIMARY SCHOOL

Thank you to Years 3,4,5 and 6 at Binsted Primary who made me feel so welcome today. You’re a smashing lot!  Hope you remember some of he things I told you about story writing. Watch out though – I might just drop in with Gary and Bob and test you all soon.

The New Year promises to be even more exciting with the publication of our new book, Snail Movie. What’s more, a group of wonderful schoolchildren has offered to help with the book cover design – how cool is that? Watch this space for more details on that one.  Otherwise it’s a new year and here we go again, always interested in exploring new ways to educate schoolchildren about African land snails, about story writing and about all that goes into getting a book on a bookshelf whether in a library or a bookshop.

SCHOOL VISITS

Our programme begins in January with a visit to Binsted Primary School. It’s my first visit to Binsted school so I’m really excited about introducing the children to Bob and Gary the snails and telling them all about how we as a family began to write.

EASTER WORKSHOPS

Another very exciting development is the opportunity madaboutsnailbooks has been given to work with the staff at Intech near Winchester to put on some workshops over the 2010 Easter break. Children will be able to bring their parents along to hear a talk on African Land Snails and to observe one or two fine specimens. This is a new departure for us and a very interesting one because it gives us the chance to educate youngsters about the science of molluscs and how sensitive they are to their environment.

THE SECRET SCROLL

The children from Newspaper Club are back in action on 14th January at Selborne CofE Primary School. It will be time for the big appraisal and brainstorming on how we spend the £1,000.00 raised from sales of The Secret Scroll. Some of the children have already begun to talk about designing a board game of the book though there is much interest in opening up the Club to any child from the school who’d just like to have a go at drawing or writing for a purpose. This is an interesting and exciting development for the school, and it will be great to see how things progress.

We are currently awaiting an appraisal on The Secret Scroll from Anne Matthews at Hampshire County Council’s Children’s Library Service and I am sure there will be things we can learn from that experience.

In the meantime a big thank you to everyone who supported the book and who bought a copy.  We were all thrilled by the response to it, to the resulting publicity and to what the children will go on to next.

THE AFRICAN LAND SNAILS

The snow’s gone but the cold weather is returning so the snails will be asleep for another few weeks I am sure. Sometimes they can sleep until Easter by which time we’ve already begun to think they may have died. Of course when they emerge from their shells they are very, very hungry and go on a food-fest for weeks on end. We can understand that, can’t we, even if our stomachs are full to bursting after the Christmas celebrations.

A Happy New Year to you all!  If this is the year you decide you want to write your own book – whether as a school project, a family children’s story, or a school history, I’d love to hear from you.

Sarah Lucas

Next blog:  How to Start Writing That Story